16, January 2018

Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) today launched a programme for documentation of the tangible and intangible heritage sites along both sides of Mahanadi river. It will be a road map for the conservation workers, historians, students and researchers. Seven teams of culture enthusiasts will cover nearly 1000 kilometres on both side of the river Mahanadi under the project.

INTACH is an autonomous non-governmental Indian non-profit society that seeks to preserve Indian culture and heritage. It was founded in 1984.

Mahanadi rises from Raipur district of Chhatisgarh and flows for about 851 km before its outfall into the Bay of Bengal. Its main tributaries are the Seonath, the Jonk, the Hasdeo, the Mand, the ib, the Ong and the Tel.

Near the city of Sambalpur, it is dammed by the largest earthen dam in the world, the Hirakud Dam.

‘IPrism’

Source: PIB

It is one of its kind Intellectual Property (IP) Competition for college and university students. The Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM), Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), in collaboration with ASSOCHAM and ERICSSON India, has launched this competition.

The competition:

The competition aims to foster a culture of innovation and creativity in the younger generation. It will provide young creators a unique opportunity to see their creations recognized on a national platform. This competition invites students to submit films on piracy & counterfeiting under two categories of 30 and 60 seconds. Another category in the competition is for a mobile gaming app on IP.

Background:

Counterfeiting and Piracy cause significant loss to the industry and pose serious safety threats to the consumers. Generating awareness can help in tackling such crimes since limited knowledge about their adverse social and economic impact leads to circulation and consumption of pirated content and fake goods.

CIPAM:

Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM) has been created as a professional body under the aegis of DIPP to take forward the implementation of the National IPR Policy that was approved by the Government in May 2016, with the slogan – “Creative India; Innovative India”. CIPAM is working towards creating public awareness about IPRs in the country, promoting the filing of IPRs through facilitation, providing inventors with a platform to commercialize their IP assets and coordinating the implementation of the National IPR Policy in collaboration with Government Ministries/Departments and other stakeholders.

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‘Vajra Prahar’

Source: The Hindu

‘Vajra Prahar’ is a Indo-US Special Forces joint training exercise conducted alternately in India and the US.

The upcoming edition of the joint military exercise ‘Vajra Prahar’ will be held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in Seattle. The exercise will mainly focus on special operations in urban areas.

Aim and objectives of the exercise:

The aim of the exercise is to promote military relations between the two countries by enhancing interoperability and mutual exchange of tactics between Special Forces. The objectives of the joint training is to share the best practices between the two armies and to develop joint strategies by sharing expertise of conducting operations in a counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism environment, while capitalising on the rich repository of experiences of each other armies.

Though the exercise began in 2010, there was a gap of three years between 2012 and 2015. The last edition was held in Jodhpur in March 2017. This edition’s Indian Army team is from the Pune-headquartered Southern Command.

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Purandara Dasa

Source: The Hindu

There is much speculation about where Purandara Dasa, regarded as the pitamaha of Carnatic music, was born. Now, an expert committee constituted by Kannada University, Hampi, has come to the conclusion that it was most likely a small village called Kshemapura (now called Keshavapura) at Araga hobli in Tirthahalli taluk of Shivamogga district in Karnataka.

The committee has found enough evidence to believe this place, which was a major province of the Vijayanagara empire, was the birthplace of the saint.

Background:

Till now, some have been arguing that the saint-poet was born in Purandaragadh, near Pune in Maharashtra, and finally settled in Hampi.

Purandaradasa:

Purandara Dasa (1484–1564) was a Haridasa, great devotee of Lord Krishna (an incarnation of Lord Vishnu) and a saint. He was a disciple of the celebrated Madhwa philosopher-saint Vyasatirtha, and a contemporary of yet another great Haridasa, Kanakadasa.

Purandaradasa was the pioneer who blended the rich musical streams, namely the Dravidian and Aryan music, into a single stream known as Carnatic music. In honor of his significant and legendary contributions to Carnatic Music, he is widely referred to as the Pitamaha of Carnatic Music.

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Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE)

Source: PIB

The 65th Meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) was recently held under the Chairmanship of Union Human Resource Development Minister Shri Prakash Javadekar. A number of decisions were taken at the meeting, in part flowing from the agenda, and in part stemming from concerns raised by the State Governments.

The board has decided to launch ‘Operation Digital Board’ in all schools in five years. This will be undertaken jointly by Centre, State, CSR, and community. This will improve the quality of education. Students will be empowered with 360 degree information with interesting learning experience and teacher accountability will also increase.

The Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE):

The Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) is the highest advisory body to advise the Central and State Governments in the field of education. The Central Advisory Board of Education, the oldest and the most important advisory body of the Government of India in education was first established in 1920 and dissolved in 1923 as a measure of economy. It was revived in 1935 and has been in existence ever since.

The functions of CABE would be:

To review the progress of education from time to time.

To appraise the extent and manner in which the education policy has been implemented by the Central and State Governments, and other concerned agencies, and to give appropriate advice in the matter.

To advice regarding coordination between the Central and State Governments/UT Administrations, State Governments and non-governmental agencies for educational development in accordance with the education policy.

To advise, suo motu, or on a reference made to it by the Central Government or any State Government or a Union Territory Administration or any educational question.

KEY FACTS:

The idea that there should be a central Advisory Board of Education was first put forward by the Calcutta University Commission (1917-19).

Chairman of the board shall be Union Minister of Human Resource Development. Minister of State for Human Resource Development shall be the Vice- Chairman.

The tenure of office of members of the Board, other than the ex-officio members, shall be three years.

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